Sermons Based on the Lectionary of the Church

Bread of Life

by Jose Kurian Puliyeril

Devotional thoughts for 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Gospel Reading: St. John 6:35-46

Our Lord and Savior established the sacrament of Holy Eucharist for
the continuation of His blessed master plan of salvation as well as
for the confirmation of the salvation of the coming generations. By
the grace of God, we have to meditate the verses spoken by our Lord
at the time of the establishment of the Sacrament for the salvation
of the faithful. First of all, our Lord introduces Himself as the
bread of life. The people who are starving could only enjoy the
taste, greatness and satisfaction after having the bread or what we
call the food. Those who are spiritually hungry only could enjoy the
taste and satisfaction of the Holy Eucharist, which is the real
spiritual food. Though the Holy mystery, the body of our Lord looks
like the worldly food, its greatness and uniqueness would be
experienced by the ones who would partake it.

We must make it a point not to attend the sacrament only as onlookers.
Whereas when we would participate the sacrament with proper spiritual preparation,
devotion, expectation and prayer, we could also experience the
difference. Our Lord promises "the ones who would partake from this
bread and drink will never hunger or thirst."

"Whoever drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst,
but the water I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up in
to everlasting life" St. John 4:14. Again in St. John 7:37 we read: "If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink". And also in Revelations 22:17 we read, "And
let him that is thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life free".
We will have to think well how long we could ignore the free promise of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. In our Lord's version, God the Father is giving the faithful
to Son the God. (See the 37 th verse) Immediately after this, our Lord exposes
His precious and highly valuable promise. "Him that comes to me I will no wise
cast out."

How many of us are so strictly following the above verse of our Lord
and acknowledge it, though we have accepted our Lord as our Lord and
God and we might attend the Holy Eucharist every week and accept the
Holy Eucharist as and when possible? We will have to think about it
so seriously. When we might have a worldly problem or when things
might not end as we expected, or if we happen to be a patient or so,
what would be our position? Would we be strong in our faith that our
Lord God is sufficient for all our needs? Or would we lose all our
hope? We turn to be people like who lost all their hope and faith.
Where goes our faith and how our hope gets vanished? Why we lose our
hope as we have meditated several times on the following verses from
the Scriptures, including: "Behold, God will not cast away a perfect
man, neither he help evil doers". (Job 8:20) and "Come now and let us reason
together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1:18-19)

Now let us look at the 40 th verse of today's reading. "And this is the will of the
one who sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believes on him may have
everlasting life; and I shall raise him up at the last day." Where
we have to see the Son? How we could see? We have to think about
these and find out the answers for such small questions. Only because of the
answers for these questions we often go to Church as
congregation and attend the traditional prayers and the Sacraments.

In our daily lives we come across many who might question us. "What
is the need to go to Church, Can't we pray anywhere we like, after
all are we not praying to Lord God?" etc. This is the answer for such
who advocate the sectarian teachings. Our Lord only taught us to
believe him by seeing him. We have to look at the living and life
giving body and blood of our Lord. When we look at His body and
blood we could see Him. Our Church is strictly following the Holy Sacrament
in lines with the instruction of our Lord and savior. But still we must think
whether we could see our Lord God properly even though we attend the divine
services regularly. Think whether we could realize our Lord properly.
May God Almighty enable us all to attend the holiest worships with the full
presence of our minds and bodies and to learn more about our God and to
realize Him by tasting Him.

Now let us look at the 45th verse of today's reading. "It is written
by the Prophets and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto
me". How true are these verses? How much we have heard about our
Savior and we have studied about His wonderful salvation mission.
Are we attracted to Him by our Father in heaven? Think whether we
could follow the teachings of our God. God promises in Isaiah 54:13
that our children will be advised by Jehovah and their peace will be
great. May God enable us to accept God's instructions and advises on
the spot. Let our and our future generations' minds be filled with
the peace of God.